Miami. The Dominican Republic defeated (2-0) Puerto Rico in the game for the seeding and is number one out of the Miami poule.
The Dominicans will face The Kingdom of the Netherlands in Monday’s semifinal (6 pm US Pacific Time), while Puerto Rico will face Japan on Sunday (6 pm US Pacific Time).
The game was played in front of almost 26,000 fans (including former Dominican pitching superstar Pedro Martinez) and turned out to be a pitching duel between Puerto Rico’s Orlando Roman and Dominican left hander Wandy Rodriguez.
A towering home run (420 feet, the P.A. revealed) by catcher Carlos Santana broke the tie in the bottom of the fifth and the Dominican Republic had no need to look back.
Shortstop Aybar, who had prevented a run from scoring with a perfect throw home in the third, scored an insurance run in the eigth on a base hit by Francisco Pena, one of the many players that entered the game and who was playing catcher.
The Dominican Republic will face in the semi final the team that eliminated them in 2009: “The past is the past” said dominican manager Tony Pena “We are thinking of the present. Many of these boys were not there then. Teams have gotten as far as they have for a reason, but we have only to keep playing this game. I don’t want players to think about what happened 4 years ago”.
Puertorico manager Edwin Rodriguez has a lot of respect for Japan: “They are 2 time Champions of the World Baseball Classic for a reason. They know how to play the game and they put a lot of emphasis on the little things, on mastering the obvious and they don’t make many mistakes. We have to go out there and almost play a perfect game”.
A total 154.624 fans attended the games in Miami. Robinson Cano, the star second baseman of the Yankees representing the Dominican Republic, was named the MVP of the poule. Cano was named the MVP also of the qualifying pool played in Puerto Rico.
Edwin Rodriguez wanted to talk about his performances: “We are watching one of the elite players and he is performing at 100% on every game, every inning and every pitch. He is showing the world that Latin Americans know how to play the game. We have a lot of respect for him”.
Cano accepted the compliments: “It makes me proud to hear a person like Edwin express himself like that about me. I thank him also on behalf of my team mates”.
Cano also talked about the two awards: “Individual awards are good, but what I really wanted was to advance as a team”.
Do you feel like collecting a debt Monday against The Netherlands? “I wouldn’t call it a debt. You have to forget what happened in the past, it’s a matter of winning each game to remain in the fight”.
Results Second Round in Miami:
Tuesday, March 12, 2013:
Dominican Republic 5 – Italy 4
USA 7 – Puerto Rico 1
Wednesday, March 13, 2013:
Puerto Rico 4 – Italy 3 (Italy eliminated)
Thursday, March 14, 2013:
USA 1 – Dominican Republic 3 (Dominican Republic advances to final round)
Friday, March 15, 2013:
USA 3 – Puerto Rico 4 (Puerto Rico advances to final round, USA eliminated)
Saturday, March 16, 2013:
Dominican Republic 2 – Puerto Rico 0
